An

This is about 7 per cent of a decrease as compared with last year. impression prevails, very generally, that the deficiency in lard is much greater than this; but it seems to have been overlooked that while there is a large falling off in the yield per hog, there is a greater number of hogs from which to obtain the article this year than last.

The results of the crop figures for the year 1859, show the deliveries of a bad harvest generally. The year now commencing promises unusual abundance, and a corresponding revival of business may be looked for. The state of affairs is not unlike what it was at the close of 1854.

At that time commercial confidence had almost disappeared, and every man became afraid of his fellow. Banks, merchants, manufacturers, and all kinds of business men were looked upon with suspicion. Bankruptcy at the East, at the West, at the North, and at the South prevailed. Failures of a startling magnitude were continually announced, blasting whatever hope remained with those who still continued to ride against the storm. This was the state of matters in the fall of 1854. But a few months rolled on, and confidence became gradually restored; the seed time and the harvest came, and the results were the most luxuriant vegetation and the most abundant harvest ever gathered, and the close of the year found confidence fully restored.

The figures for the crop receipts in 1856 show the sure basis on which the renewed prosperity of Cincinnati was based. The present year must show similar results. The utmost abundance is said to exist among the producers; and with the realization of those crops, a returning demand for goods must manifest itself, giving new life to industry and calling into use the vast elements of national wealth with which the great valley of the Mississippi so profusely abounds, and of which Cincinnati is the natural point of concentration.

Art. V. SINGAPORE, PENANG, AND SUMATRA: THEIR COMMERCE AND PRODUCTIONS.

Ar the extremity of the Malay peninsula, which forms the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, is situated a cluster of islands which separate the Indian Ocean from the China Sea. The passage between these islands and the main land is known as the Straits of Malacca, and is the great thoroughfare for ships of all nations trading between China and the East Indies. The most important of these islands is Singapore and Penang. This group of islands is quite distinct from the Indian archipelago proper the members of which are all situated south of the equator, and are under the Dutch protectorate; of these, Sumatra is the chief. The Malacca group is much infested with Malay pirates, who interfere greatly with that development of commerce of which the islands are susceptible under a strong and liberal government.

The inhabitants, like most islanders, have strong nautical propensities, and the soil furnishes the most abundant crops of desirable articles of commerce, yet trade shrinks before the dangers that beset it in those unprotected seas. It is only of late years that the straits trade has become of general importance to American shipping. Formerly the Dutch influence was overshadowing in those waters, and the American flag was comparatively a stranger. At that time Batavia, in Java, and Padang, on the coast of Sumatra, the point where the Dutch government sales of coffee are held, formed the destination of most American ships, and they were required to submit to the exactions of the Dutch government, which generally influenced an advance in prices on the occasion of their arrival. These ships, after completing their pepper purchases, would visit Singapore or Pulo Penang, to invest the residue of their Spanish dollars in banca, tin, or spices; and then, after recruiting her stores, would proceed on her long homeward-bound voyage.

Of late years a considerable change has taken place, both in the mode and in the magnitude of the trade; and this has been effected, to a considerable extent, by the gold discoveries in Australia and San Francisco, giving a new impulse to the trade of the East. The fine class of clipperships built for that trade, after discharging their outward cargoes at Melbourne or San Francisco, now proceed to Singapore for orders, and are generally taken up to proceed to Rangoon, Moulmein, or Akyab, to load rice for some European port at a rate ranging from £2 10s. to £3 15s. sterling per ton, and sometimes timber from Moulmein. The English house of Boustead, at Singapore, is the leading one in this business. Until the recent establishment of the house of Messrs. Williams, Anthon & Co., a branch of the successful house of that name in Hong Kong, there were no American houses at Singapore. There are also desirable freights offering to China and Siam since the latter has been opened to commerce. The trade between Singapore and Calcutta is mostly monopolized by the Peninsula and Oriental line of steamers.

Singapore, which is, from its commanding position, the chief of the Malacca group, is situated in latitute 1.17 north, longitude 103 east, and was, in 1818, established as a free port by Sir Stamford Ruffles. The harbor and roadstead are always well supplied with shipping. Of these, the Chinese junks are the most numerous. They come down from China during the northeast monsoon, and remain in port until the setting of the southwest monsoon, when they return; thus protracting the voyage nine months for the sake of a fair wind in both directions. The most extensive establishment on the island is that of the Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, at New Harbor, four miles from the town, where they have considerable machine-shops and material for the use of the fleet of steamships, including a stock of coal averaging 15,000 tons. There are some considerable native establishments for the manufacture of sago, tapioca, gambier, cocoa-nut oil, white pepper, &c. The first mentioned article is the farina from the stem of several palms indigenous to the island. Each tree when felled will yield from five to six hundred pounds of sago flour, from which the pearl sago of commerce is made by moistening the flour and passing it through a seive into an iron vessel placed over a fire, when the heat causes it to assume a globular form. The flour is an article of extensive export to Europe, where it is used

for making starch and for other purposes. 'Tapioca," which has become such a favorite with many pudding-eaters among us, is the bitter casava root ground into flour, which, being washed and dried on hot plates, granulates into irregular grains. "Gambier" is an astringent extracted from the areca nut, boiled in water and strained. It is exported in the form of cakes-a cubic inch in size, and is used for dying and medical purposes. White pepper is manufactured from the black pepper by soaking and rubbing off the black wrinkled coat. It is for some purposes thus enhanced in value, although its strength and flavor are reduced. These are the principal staple products of the island, but it is also the dépôt for the manifold productions of the surrounding tropical islands. It, therefore, offers attractions not only for vessels seeking freight, but for those possessed of the requisite credits to purchase cargoes on owners' account. Point de Galle," at the Island of Ceylon, was formerly much frequented by ships to await instructions from owners. Its situation on the line of the overland mail route, by which orders could arrive in fortyeight days from home ports, made it a desirable rendezvous. The advantages of Singapore as a free port, and as the center of communication with all the East India and China houses, more than counterbalance the greater distance of ten days at which it is placed; since vessels there receiving orders to seek business, are already in the center of it. This process of concentration, favored by the fact that no pilotage, import, or export duties are exacted, has also attracted to Singapore the trade that formerly was enjoyed by the Dutch port of "Rhio," on Bintang Island, and which is the principal resort of the Malay prahaus.

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Until within a very recent date the United States interest in the trade was not important. It consisted chiefly of some two or three eastern ship-owners who very succesfully employed their capital in a sort of monopoly of the business. The apparent success of the operation drew large competition into it. The speculative year, 1857, witnessed the arrival of numbers of supercargoes at Singapore, by the overland route, without the indispensable knowledge of the Malay language, or of the details of the trade. This competition produced an active demand for produce on American account, raising prices, while dispatches from Europe, by the overland route, gave semi-monthly accounts of a growing depression. The cost of many of these purchases was enhanced by the necessity of shipping in foreign bottoms to the United States, where the goods arrived in the time of the panic. The losses thus entailed were a severe blow to the nascent trade. It has, however, assumed such a general position as to promise the most important development in the future.

The currency of Singapore is Spanish dollars, and sales of merchandise are made by weights as follows:

The bunkal, two Spanish dollars or 832 grains Troy. The leading importations from the United States are tobacco, clocks, brown drills, thirty inch pieces, of thirty yards-average value $48 per six hundred yards; sheetings, thirty-seven inch pieces, of forty yards-average $60 per eight hundred yards.

There being, as we have said, no import or export duties, the revenues are derived from selling the monopoly of Chinese opium, and of spirits. For that privilege the farmer pays $185,000 per annum, and realizes from it a fortune in addition. There is also a tax upon estates, which yields about $15,000 per annum.

The Island of Pulo Penang was formerly a presidency of the East India Company. In certain localities it is exceedingly bracing and much frequented by residents of India seeking health. It is sixteen miles long and of an average breadth of eight miles. "Mount McAlister" being the highest of its hill ranges, is elevated 2,500 feet. It is divided from the province" Wellesly" by a narrow channel. The "dry and wet" seasons are not so distinctly marked as at other places in the East Indies.

Penang derives its importance from an unequaled freshness of climate, and from its being for many years the object of extensive cultivation of various spices and pepper, which business has, of late, been somewhat checked, attention being paid to other productions, consisting of cocoa-nut oil, betel-nut, camphor, rice, tin, sugar, rattans, and dragons' blood, which is extracted from the latter article. Boat-building is extensively carried on by the Malays. Georgetown is on the eastern end of the island, the harbor being southeast of it. The principal house of business in Penang is that of Revely & Co., American merchants, of which Mr. Currier is the head, and a gentleman well known to eastern travelers for his hospitality. The Island of "Sumatra " is nine hundred miles long, and contains 460,000 square miles, and many years since was a resort of "American shipping" to a much greater extent than it now is. Previous to the expiration of the East India Company's charter, who monopolized the English trade of the island, forty American ships annually loaded at the various pepper ports. After that occurrence, the trade being open to all British ships, competition resulted. The much regretted treaty between Great Britain and Holland, in which the former ceded all her settlements on the Islands of Sumatra and Banca, has effectually reduced the commerce of all nations on these Islands, and in the principal ports the Dutch limit the production of the two most important staples of the island.

The ports open to commerce are Acheen and Sambalang on the north end, Amalaboo, Padang, and Bencoolen on the west side, and Palembang on the east coast. The pepper ports are Delli, Langkat, Balu, China, Sirdang, and numerous smaller ones of less importance. The collection of a cargo of pepper is a tedious process-ships are often six months on the coast. Formerly the payment to the natives was made in Turkey opium or Spanish "Carolus" dollars, which command a high premium. The race of "Battus," who bring the pepper down to the coast, hoard up the proceeds, either in concealing or melting it down into ornaments, as not a dollar is ever known to leave the country.

The locality of the productions on this island are as follows:-From Banca to River Rakim, 500 miles, sago, rattans, and dragons' blood; Rakim to Diamond Point, 240 miles, black pepper; Diamond Point to Acheen Head, betel-nut. The shores of the latter tract of country are washed by the Bay of Bengal.

The productions of Sumatra, in addition to articles already enumerated, are beeswax, gambier, and camphor. Imports into Acheen and Langkat are of considerable importance, and consist in part of opium, salt, cloths, sarangs, European chintzes, and American drillings and sheetings. Their

requirements, owing to the immense population in the interior, are very large. The different races on this island are as follows:-Malays, Sampangs, and Battaks, the latter somewhat inclined to cannabalism. Acheen was formerly the largest city in Sumatra, and had 36,000 inhabitants. The population of the island is estimated at 400,000.

JOURNAL OF MERCANTILE LAW.

DECISION IN ADMIRALTY ON APPEAL-COLLISION BETWEEN SAILING VESSELSWHEN LARBOARD TACK MAY HOLD ON.

In the United States Circuit Court. Before Judge NELSON. William H. Wells vs. the schooner Ann Caroline.

NELSON, C. J.-The libel in this case was filed by the owner of the schooner John C. Wells, against the schooner Ann Caroline, to recover damages for a collision occurring in the month of February, 1854, on the eastern shore of the Delaware Bay. The two vessels were beating up the bay in company with several other vessels in a channel about a mile wide, between Crow Shoal and the Jersey shore. The wind was N. N. W., about a five or six knot breeze; the tide flood, setting up the bay. The John C. Wells was close hauled on her larboard tack, which was her long tack from Crow Shoal to the Jersey shore; the Ann Caroline close-hauled on her starboard tack on the opposite course from the Jersey shore to Crow Shoal. The Wells was very heavy laden-the Ann Caroline in ballast. The two vessels had tacked at the Crow Shoal upon their long tack nearly at the same time, the Caroline at the time being to the leeward of the Wells, and somewhat astern of her. The Ann Caroline ran out but onehalf or two-thirds of her course, when she suddenly came round on her starboard tack, in consequence of a vessel ahead suddenly backing and obstructing her course. While on this course she came in collision with the Wells, striking her on her starboard side aft, about ten or fifteen feet from her taffrail, opening her side, and from which injury she sank to the bottom of the channel in a few minutes.

The main ground upon which the defence of the Ann Caroline is placed is, that she was on the starboard or privileged tack, and that it was the duty of the Wells to give way and pass to her right. This rule of navigation is admitted by the counsel for the Wells, but it is insisted, that it has no application to the relative position of the two vessels as made out upon the proofs in the case. It is claimed on his part that the Wells was to the windward of the Caroline, and ahead or above her in the channel, and that if this rule had been observed, and the Wells had ported her helm, a collision would have been inevitable; that the change of course would have brought her head against the starboard side of the Caroline, and that her proper maneuver in the emergency was to starboard her helm, which she did, and which would have avoided the other vessel if she had not ported her helm at or about the same time, which caused her to strike the Wells on her starboard side but a few feet from her stern. The controlling question in the case is whether or not the Wells was to the windward, and so far above the course of the Caroline, before the two vessels came together, as to forbid the application of this entitled rule of navigation, that when two vessels are approaching each other on opposite tacks, both having the wind free, the one on the larboard tack shall give way and pass to the right. On looking into the proofs in the case, which are very voluminous, it will be found that the testimony of the master and hands on board of the respective vessels, as usual, is contradictory-those of the Wells claiming that the course of the Caroline was to the leeward and southerly of that of their vessel, while those on the Caroline insist that her course was to the windward of the Wells.